


Golden Dandelions

by Trekkele



Series: Keep the Lights On. [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Post-Narada, Songfic, or she tried, winona kirk was a good mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 08:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14745581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trekkele/pseuds/Trekkele
Summary: Ooh-ooh, and she saidLay me down in golden dandelions'Cause I've been waiting for this moment all my lifeFollow me into the darkWinona Kirk was never meant for waiting. Sometimes that's all you can do.





	Golden Dandelions

**Author's Note:**

> Heavily inspired by Barns Courtney's "Golden Dandelions". I would suggest listening to it, along with his "Glitter and Gold". Not because of the fic or anything, just because it's good music.
> 
> Standard disclaimers apply, if I owned anything, Carol Marcus would show up more often and Spock would be wearing his eyeshadow. (shakes fist at paramount "Cowards!!")

If she was being honest, she’d been waiting for this for 25 years. Most days, when she closes her eyes she can still lightning flashing against stars, outlined in fire and the burning metal of the starship that took so much from her. Too much.

8 ships. Gone. And all she can think about is her youngest son. Four years old and asking about the stars. She remembers wanting to keep him far, far away from them. 

 _Stay on the ground_ , she wanted to say. _Stay safe on the ground. They took your father from me. They’re taking me away from you. The stars have never done anything kind for us._

But she knew she’d never forgive herself if she took that wonder from him. If she scared him away from the stars. So they traced constellations at night, whispering names and stories and explorers out into the air. 

_“That’s Cassiopeia. She was a queen who thought she was prettier than the gods.” Jimmy squinted up at the stars, and than turned to Winona._

_“You’re prettier than her,” he said, with all the confiden_ _ce of a little boy giving his mother a crumpled paper star._ _“And that one?”_

_She waved at Cygnus flying through the sky.“That’s another queen, who just wanted to run away and be safe."_

_Jimmy nodded sagely, "So they turned her into stars, so she could fly forever”_

 

Four years old and so sure the stars could never be anything but glorious.

The observation deck was quiet. Empty, when everyone was looking for company, the reassurance that was other people breathing.  _We aren’t dead._  It says.  _The enemy is gone._ It says.  _It’s finally over._

8 ships. No word on survivors. G-d above, why was she here? 

She wonders if it would it have been better to die over Vulcan, to never be so helpless, staring out into the black without any answer but the ones she could imagine for herself. 

A breathless ensign barreled through the doors. “Captain requests you on the bridge, Commander!”

And suddenly she could almost hear the stars outside the view screen. Singing endlessly as her heart beat to the sound of a warp core.The halls melted around them as they entered the turbo lift, the light hum of it moving sounding almost like a car starting.

_They used to go out, in George’s old car, to the empty fields down by the old quarry. Sammy and Jimmy and her. Racing against dust clouds on the dirt roads, singing to the radio even as Winona saw ghosts out of the corners of her eyes._

_One summer they found a field of dandelions, golden and swaying in the wind. She could keep track of where Jim was by the way they bent around him, a thousand golden crowns bowing to a single boy crowned in brilliant sunlit strands, as he chased after butterflys and bobbing over hills._

_He popped up next to her, a handful of fluffy puff-balls in a chubby fist, gap toothed and grinning._

_“Make a wish Mama"_

 

The turbo lift stopped, opening onto a bridge that was busy as ever. Life goes on, it seems. 

She remembered that too.

"Commander Kirk”, the Captain turned to face her “There’s someone here who’d like to speak with you”

Which was about when she noticed that the view screen, instead of showing the endless stars they were traveling through, held another bridge. And oh- 

_“ **Jimmy** ”_

He looked … he was tired and bruised, but like the old heroes, the old legends he used to insist on hearing again and again. Somehow, dressed only in black, commanding attention without saying a word. The whole bridge revolving around him, subconsciously turning to him for no reason other than he was there. 

  
_They were under the stars again._

_“_ _Tell me again, about how Icarus fell.” She wondered sometimes if the universe just didn’t like the Kirks very much, or if there was something about that them that said_ Hurt us. We can take it _._

_“After he and his father escaped the labyrinth, Icarus didn't want to land. He flew higher and higher, his father shouting warnings from the ground, but Icarus was too busy listening to the wind rushing past. And than he flew to close too the sun, and his wings melted from the heat.”_

_“Yeah, ” he whispered, eyes fever bright and face still too skinny. “Yeah but he_  flew.  _and he was free. Maybe…maybe he thought it was worth falling for something like that.”_

 

He smiled, a thousand crowns of gold bobbing in the wind as he ran, laughing, till the sun.

“Hi Ma.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine that as much information they could get through was mostly reports and ship status - and that non Admirals had some difficulty getting that information. However, this isn't supposed to be more than 36 hours after the Narada, so don't worry, Winona wasn't waiting too long.  
> Also, my Winona is stationed on the Shen-Zou, under Captain Phillipa Georgeou. Because what's the point of a parallel universe if your faves don't survive?


End file.
